The Australian Open is likely to go ahead a week later than planned with police-supervised practice sessions.
Radio presenter and court announcer Brett Phillips tweeted on Tuesday a claim that all sessions will be supervised by Victorian police.
“My understanding is that the international players will be able to quarantine from Jan 7-21 supervised by Victoria Police and will be able to practice but not compete,” Phillips said on Twitter.
“January 25 or February 1 start to be confirmed, and decision still to be made on qualifiers and lead-in tournaments.”
Victoria’s Sport and Major Events Minister Martin Pakula told the ABC the tournament will “most likely” be delayed by a week.
“I think that’s most likely, but it’s not the only option,” he said.
Mr Pakula also says players had been encouraged to keep their entourages small, but there were no set rules at this stage for the number of support staff each player could bring.
“People need to bear in mind that there will be an extremely rigorous testing regime that will apply to the tennis players both before they leave the port that they’re coming from and when they arrive,” Mr Pakula said.
World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev has already expressed reservations over the proposed conditions.
“I’m not complaining that it’s boring or something like this, it’s just that going out from the room after 14 days of not doing anything and then playing five sets right away, I think would be really dangerous for the health of any sportsman,” he told CNN.
“I don’t think it’s going to be possible for anybody to go there if they will need to stay in the room for 14 days.”
